Sasuke's Cats
by SeussPepper
Summary: Sasuke has to babysit some cats, and a pink-haired teammate is the only person that can help.
1. Chapter 1

All of my stories are set in the same world before or during Sasuke and Sakura's relationship. This is before they're dating.

**Backstory:** Sasuke returned to the village after killing Itachi and getting his revenge. He doesn't know the truth about Danto's involvement and Itachi's true motives. He was pardoned and rised through the ranks as a ninja and is slowly rebuilding his bonds.

**8:15 am**

Sasuke had been awake for almost 20 minutes. He never slept in, even on days like this when Team 7 didn't have to meet. Ever since he (thought he) got his revenge half a year ago he's been…well, bored. He worked towards that one goal for so long and now that he's finished he has nothing to do, nothing to work for, no reason to get out of bed, no—DING DONG. He lifted his head off of his pillow wondering if that was real. DING DONG.

"Eh, doorbell," he muttered as he sat up and threw on a t-shirt and shorts. He lazily walked to his front door, sighed, and opened it. There was nobody there; just an animal cage with a note on it. He crouched down and read the note:

_Sasuke, aren't you glad we're best friends?_ _Me too! That's why I know you would help me because I would always help you. Since I know you love animals and since you know Hinata and I are going out of town…_

"There is nothing correct with this note so far…" Sasuke thought to himself.

_I figured you would be the perfect person to look after our cats for the next few days. Here are Fidel and K-Jong. _

_-Your BFF (Naruto) ((Best Friend Forever)) _

Sasuke picked up the cage and looked inside to see an orange and a white cat.

"Damnit Naruto…"

He walked back in with the cage and sat it on his counter. He didn't like cats and he barely liked his "best friend". He began cooking rice for breakfast. He grabbed his trademark favorite food, a tomato, and began munching on that while the rice cooked.

"MEOW! MEOW! MeeOW!" Fidel and K-Jong screeched.

"What?" he asked the cats in annoyance.

"MEOW MEOW MEOW!"

"What do you, uh, what? What? Is this gonna go on long 'cause I'll probably be here—"

"MEOW!"

"You probably just wanna get out…" Sasuke unlatched the door and the cats leaped out onto the kitchen floor. They hissed and ran around his floor still meowing loudly.

Sasuke sighed loudly and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Ok shut up already…ugh, I need to get rid of you, but nobody would come here _just _to take these cats."

He walked back to bedroom and grabbed his phone and called one of the four numbers he had in his phone.

_-Ring Ring-_

"Hi Sasuke-kun! Pocket dial me again?"

"No. Wanna come have breakfast at my place?"

"Yes! I'll be right there."

"Hn," he replied before hanging up. That was the longest phone call he's ever done.

**8:23 am**

Sasuke was just finishing making eggs to go with the rice when there was the familiar DING DONG at his front door. He walked to the door and opened it to see his lovely pink-haired teammate.

"Hey."

"Hi Sasuke-kun thanks for inviting me."

"Hn. Come in."

She walked into his apartment for the second time ever. He walked to the table, pulled a chair out for Sakura and sat down, which she followed. The plates of eggs, rice and cherry tomatoes were already ready for them.

"Did you cook this yourself?"

"Uh-huh."

Sakura popped one of the tiny tomatoes into her mouth, "Hmm, these are good, but I don't know why you're madly in—Sasuke! You got cats?"

Rubbing against one of Sakura's leg was Fidel and K-Jong jumped onto their table.

"Uh, no. These are Naruto's."

"Aw, they're cute," Sakura sweetly sang as she scratched the back of its ear.

"Yeah well, they were yelling a lot earlier."

"Yelling?"

"Meowing."

"Did you feed them?" she asked.

Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows quizzically.

"You _didn't _feed them?" she asked again.

"No what do they, uh, eat?"

"Cat food, milk, fish," Sakura listed off.

"I don't have any of those."

Sakura got up and opened his refrigerator. Inside were tomatoes, eggs, tomato soup, cheese, cherry tomatoes, and—ah! Milk. She opened the carton and could smell the aroma of spoiled milk.

"That's expired," Sasuke monotonously explained.

"I could go shopping with you?" Sakura asked.

"Eh, fine. I could use more tomatoes."

Sakura sat back down and kept eating, "So did you just invite me here for cat help?"

"Do you mind?"

"Of course not!"

"Great, wanna take them?"

She giggled, "You're funny sometimes."

He smirked and kept eating.

"Do you like cats?"

"Not really," Sasuke replied.

Sakura scratched her leg and said, "I used to have a dog but my parents took him with them when they moved."

"Hn," Sasuke said in his typical monotonous grunt. He scratched his face.

"Naruto and Hinata went to a spa for the weekend. I think they're getting pretty seri—" she started, but had to scratch her face, "serious. Uh, Sasuke are you feeling itchy?"

He was in the middle of scratching his neck, "Kinda."

They both peered to their side to see Fidel gnawing at his paw and K-Jong scratching his ears.

"Did…Naruto say if these cats have flees?"

"He probably gave them it."

Sakura smiled and let out a quick laugh, "You are funny sometimes."

"Don't tell anyone."

She kept smiling, "I'm glad you called me."

"Well, I only have four numbers in my phone and one of them dumped these mangy these on me."

"Ooh, let me guess your contacts. Well, there's me and Naruto. And Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yeah."

"And….uh, Tsunade? For missions?"

"No."

They both continued to itch at the flees that jumped on them.

"Let me guess, um…Sai? He's grown on you, right?"

"No and no."

"Then who?"

"Pizza delivery."

Sakura chuckled and smiled wide. Sasuke couldn't help to feel happy making her happy.

"We should go to the store."

"Hn."

**8:57 am**

Sasuke and Sakura paced the aisles of the market. Sasuke held the shopping basket that gradually got heavier as Sakura tossed in various cat supplies and basic human food that weren't tomatoes for Sasuke.

"Do you like Pop Tarts?"

"What are those?"

"They're a breakfast food that are sweet—"

"Pass."

Most food choice went like this until they got a lot of, well, mostly tomatoes and cat food, but Sakura picked out some fairly neutral foods for him to try.

"This is kinda fun," Sakura commented.

"Hn."

"What do you normally do on weekends?"

"Nothing."

"You just wait until you get to see the team again? I'm flattered."

"No. I read, I've found a couple tv shows that aren't completely annoying, uh, I go for walks."

"You don't train as much anymore."

"No, no I don't."

And that was true. Sasuke has calmed down considerably since returning to the village, but he's still quiet and anti-social. He would never admit it, but this was fun for him too.

**9:42 am**

The duo walked into Sasuke's apartment.

"MEOW!"

The cats had knocked over his trash can and were eating out of it.

"Oh damn!" Sasuke cursed. He set the bags on his counter and began cleaning up the mess.

Sakura unpacked the shopping bags and poured the cat food into the little bowls they got for them. Fidel and K-Jong began eating it up.

"Ok this buys us some time. Let's get them a flee bath," Sakura told him.

"Hn. Why are you helping so much?"

"We're friends. Right?"

Sasuke thought for a moment, "Hn."

It sounded positive, so Sakura smiled, grabbed the shampoo, and followed Sasuke into the bathroom.

To Be Continued.


	2. Chapter 2

**9:45 am**

Sasuke and Sakura crammed their way into his bathroom. She began running the bath, as it filled she added the flea ointment.

"That smells like crap," he told her.

"Yeah but it should clean them up," Sakura replied.

"Hn. Why couldn't Naruto do this?"

"He probably doesn't even know they have this problem."

"Yeah," he bluntly responded.

"So, why don't you like cats?"

"They're annoying."

"Do you like any animals?"

"Eh, dogs are okay."

She laughed, "Ever have one?"

"No."

At this point they both noticed the water was about to overflow.

Sasuke and Sakura, "Oh!"

They both reached for the faucet and Sasuke accidently grabbed Sakura's hand. He reached away in a split second and she shut off the water.

"Wow your hands are—"

"Let's get the cats."

Sasuke stood up and stormed out of the room and Sakura followed him. In his living room they looked around to see nothing but hair the cats shed.

"Where'd they go?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke just scoffed and said, "I'll check my other rooms. You look around in here."

"All right," Sakura acknowledged before Sasuke left her alone.

She checked around every corner, under every ledge and on every surface. She noticed a few things poking around his apartment: he's very clean, the cats were nowhere to be seen and he has a binder labeled "Memories." She knew he wasn't a sentimental person, so she looked over her shoulder and didn't see him, so she pulled out the book and opened to a random page. It was a huge coincidence, but in there was the tattered Team 7 photo he turned down years ago.

"Sakura!"

Her whole body jolted. She turned around to see nobody there.

"Sakura come to my room!"

Both times were Sasuke, thankfully still in his room out of sight. She closed the book and quickly shoved it back in the shelf.

"Coming!"

She ran to his room to see Sasuke holding Fidel like a baby. He, of course, looked uncomfortable.

She said, "Good you found one."

"Both," he shrugged his right shoulder and squinted his right eye, "Kind of."

He looked to his right and Sakura followed his gaze to see an open window.

"Did the other one get out?"

"I assume so."

Sasuke sat the cat he had down, closed the window and began walking out of the room. He walked right past Sakura as if she wasn't even there. He went through the kitchen and into the living room before calling, "You coming?"

Her eyes brightened up, "Yup!"

She jogged up next to him and they walked into the morning air.

**10:10 am**

They were walking down a path in the middle of a park.

"It's like we're 12 again; searching for a lost pet or something else trivial."

"Hn."

As usual she had to do most of the talking, "If you were a cat where would you hide?"

"What kind of a question is that?"

"It's what people ask themselves when they're looking for something."

He just grunted in annoyance.

She continued, "Well, where do you think a cat would go?"

"I don't know and I'm starting to not care."

"Maybe we should post missing posters around town?"

"No."

"We have to do something. Naruto will never let us forget this!"

Sasuke kept walking in silence.

"Sasuke-kun, we can't do nothing."

Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks, turned to face Sakura and got down on one knee.

She giggled, "Sasuke-kun what are you doing?"

He cupped his hands together and placed them on his knee, "Giving you a boost."

Sakura looked up to see K-Jong sitting on a thin branch.

Sasuke explained, "The branch won't support much weight, so climbing it or walking up it won't do much besides scare it away."

Sakura put her hands on both of his shoulders, placed her foot in his hands and in one quick motion was lifted herself up, grabbed the cat with her hands and fell back to the ground.

"Ah! Here's the cute little—" the cat MEOWED loudly and unsuccessfully tried to scratch her because she held him at arm's length, "son of a bitch!"

This got a grin out of Sasuke, "Let's get him back."

It sounded kind of ironic coming from Sasuke, but he's practically rehabilitated himself.

**10:27 am**

The duo walked back into Sasuke's apartment.

"Bath time?"

"Hn."

Sakura bee lined it to the bathroom and Sasuke headed for his room. He quickly joined her in the bathroom with the other cat.

"Ok we need to be careful. Cats _hate _water," Sakura informed her crush.

"Eh, they're just cats."

Sasuke dipped the lower half of his cat into the bathtub and it instantly screeched a high-pitch meow, thrashed around and tried to scratch and bite and run. It kicked water onto both of them.

"Agh! I hate cats," Sasuke mumbled under his breath as he instinctively raised K-Jong up.

"I'm starting to too. Let's just do it quickly or we'll be scratching all day," Sakura coaxed.

"Fine. Let's not get too much water on my floor. On 3," Sasuke said, "1, 2, 3!"

They dunked their respective felines back into the water. The cats kicked and scratched at the water but the ninjas scrubbed them clean. They let them go and they ran off leaving Sasuke and Sakura soaking wet and sitting on the bathroom floor.

Sakura exhaled and stated, "Well, at least that's over.""

"Hn."

"It was kind of fun, though. Right?"

"Yeah I guess."

They sat in silence in what was the first extended one-on-one interaction they've shared since Sasuke returned 6 months ago. To Sakura's surprise it wasn't her who broke the silence:

"I did have a dog. A long time ago."

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know."

"Oh."

"Maybe you should go. Thanks for the help."

Sasuke stood up and offered a hand to Sakura. She grabbed it and he helped her to her feet.

"Yeah, yeah I guess I should get going."

Sasuke looked away from her, "Thanks for the help," he mumbled.

"Anytime."

They walked to his front door dripping water on his carpet as they moved. He opened the door for her and she walked out.

"See you later Sasuke-kun!" she cheered.

"Yeah. I mean, we should do something like this again…sometime."

Sakura smiled, "Definitely."

Sakura walked away from his apartment wondering if that was technically their first date.

**12:22 pm**

Sasuke was lying on his couch letting Fidel nap on his chest. He didn't have much to do these days and he didn't mind the company of something that couldn't talk. His stomach growled loud enough to wake the cat from his cat nap. He woke up and looked Sasuke in the eyes and if Sasuke knew the word 'cute' he would have used it. He reached in his pocket for his phone when he heard a knock at his front door. He sat up and Fidel ran off. He walked up and opened the door to see, not too surprisingly, Sakura once again.

"Hi Sasuke-kun."

"Hey."

"So earlier you said you have pizza delivery on speed dial so I figured maybe you wouldn't mind a change," she stammered and then held forward a basket with a large bowl of something and bread rolls around it.

"Did you—"

"Ooh, was this too much?"

"No, were you—"

"Because you said we should do something sometime and now that I'm here it seems like I'm coming on too strong too fast and you probably ate already and—"

"No, calm down. Thanks for the food."

"You're welcome. I made it all myself," she said as he took the basket from her and she continued, "I hope you like it."

"What is it?"

"Tomato soup."

"Come eat it with me."

Her cheeks suddenly felt warmer as Sasuke stepped to this side giving her room to come in.

"Yeah I'd like that," she accepted

They didn't know it then, but years later they would argue about what was technically their first date. It could be the homemade lunch they shared that day, or, it could be the next day when Sasuke asked her to have dinner with him.

The End


End file.
